Observations on economics, the academy, the wider world, and things that run on rails.

3.8.16

EVOLUTIONARY STABLE BUNIONS.

Ana Swanson of Washington Post's Wonkblog meditates on the diffusion of high heels. Perhaps the well-off neighborhoods totter around on stiletto heels, or perhaps the norm is the sensible. Whatever the favored style is, when in Rome ...

People conformed much more when they moved to a place with higher socioeconomic status, as the chart [click the link] shows. It didn't matter whether heels were higher or lower in the higher-class destination — in fact, they were about evenly split on that measure.

Duh. What possible evolutionary advantage is there in emulating the coarse?

This isn’t always true of course — sometimes street style filters up, as in the case of grunge or hip-hop fashions. But for the most part, people ascribe to the fashions of those above them on the socioeconomic ladder.

Yeah, and as the current crop of tweens sees the Thirteenth Generation hit old age, and the ink fades and the colors run and the muscle tone goes, well, that might take some of the cachet away from the body art and the bolt-holes everywhere.